Community

Ross and I seem to process "community" literally daily. It's amazing to be a part of community. I'm not sure how people live without it. Most people are in community of some kind - work community, friend community, neighborhood community, support group community, church community, etc. Ross and I have been so thankful and challenged over the last few years to be in the most incredible community at Christ Fellowship. Both of us had experienced church community before coming to CF, but we could never have anticipated the growth and Truth that we experience with our small group, our mentors, and our elders and church leaders. I had this amazing taste of community my senior year in college when my group of friends would share family dinners, have dance parties, challenge one another away from sarcasm, and worship together. It was amazing and I didn't think I would ever get it back (though we get together every year at New Years and we still love one another so well)...now I know this kind of community at a new level. Ross experienced community with a group of fellow believers in Abilene that were zealous for the Lord. He was thankful to be in the midst of people that loved the way he had always desired to love and be loved. We are now part of a real, honest, fun, challenging, compassionate body of believers that loves us well and with the deep, yet incredibly raw love of Christ. I've never enjoyed being corrected, but I can honestly say that I love growing at CF. I love the sanctification process when it is in the midst of that raw, deep love. We walk amongst some very experienced, yet humble leaders. They walk with us. From meals when you come home with a precious little one, to meals when you experience loss, to text messages with encouraging, challenging and many times difficult, honest words, to random new and precious encounters (our doula at our birth), to the use of each other's testimony to bring the Kingdom, to challenges to go to the hard places and people of this world. It's beautiful... By no means do I think that CF is the perfect church because it is made up of broken people, but it is made up of broken people that desperately want to be a part of bringing the Kingdom to earth and desire to look more like Jesus every day. We are so thankful for our church community. Because of our church community, I feel like I love my work community, my neighborhood community and my friend community better. We are meant to be a part of community. We need each other... not in a co-dependent kind of way, but in a way that brings the Kingdom effectively. We reach people and love people better when we do it with other people. I feel like we are not only bringing the Kingdom, we are becoming the Kingdom together. The vulnerability, humility, and deep love we experience each week in our small group is a precious, sanctifying thing. I just want to honor the body we choose to walk with and their incredible ability to be the Kingdom. That's community...